Veera Koho, HR trainee

“Fintraffic is a safe environment for learning through practice”

Veera Koho, a student of business, worked in the Fintraffic HR team for the summer, familiarising herself with various HR tasks through practical work. How was her experience of summer work at Fintraffic? What special memories does Veera have of the summer? Why does Veera want to encourage others to apply for summer jobs at Fintraffic?

Veera studies economics and business administration at the University of Turku. She majors in management and organisation. She is also doing optional studies in marketing. When looking for summer jobs, Veera found an advertisement from Fintraffic on a job search site, which drew her attention with an interesting job description.

“The sector and the company were unknown to me at the time, but I decided to apply anyway, because the tasks were strongly related to the field I studied. I wanted to gain practical experience that would help me assess whether work in the HR sector is something I like and could possibly do in the future”, Veera explains.

A practical overview of various HR tasks

During the summer, Veera was able to carry out various HR tasks: assisting the HR team in various acute cases, communicating on the intranet and on social media, and participating in various development projects. In addition, she also coordinated and organised an event for all summer trainees at Fintraffic.

“I was positively surprised by how much responsibility and freedom I was given during my summer job at Fintraffic. I was able to do real work, and before I started, I couldn’t even imagine how much I would see and experience during the summer. The reception I got in the work community was warm right from the first days, and I feel that my contribution was genuinely appreciated. I thought it was wonderful that my learning was taken into account in my job description, which allowed me to familiarise myself with the variety of tasks that are available in the HR sector,” Veera reflects.

For Veera, the summer work felt meaningful as she was able to do routine work on behalf of other personnel to relieve their burden. When you do your own work well, others have more time for their core tasks – and when HR are doing well, it is reflected in the wellbeing of the entire organisation. However, Veera is also grateful for being able to see not only routine work but also the more exciting side of HR work during the summer.

“I especially remember the moments when I was able to participate in job interviews in the role of an interviewer. That is right at the heart of HR work, and it felt almost absurd to suddenly be on the other side of the table asking questions”, Veera recalls.

An encouraging work community and new understanding of public infrastructure

Before her summer job, Veera had never considered how wide an impact Fintraffic has. As a result of the summer job, she has realised how important the work carried out by Fintraffic is to society and the everyday lives of individuals.

“I now understand better how traffic in Finland works. I never realised that someone is out there taking care of these things so that it would be as easy as possible for me to move around. Summer work at Fintraffic gave me an opportunity for versatile self-development and comprehensive learning of new things. This was my first job in my own field, so it was nice to learn through practice. Fintraffic was a safe environment for learning, as there was an encouraging work community where I was given space and support for trying new things”, Veera says.